Explore the Opening of ‘the Importance of Being Earnest’ Paying Particular Attention to the Range of Attitudes Towards Marriage.

Explore the opening of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ paying particular attention to the range of attitudes towards marriage.

In The Importance of Being Earnest, various attitudes are explored by the main characters, which range in support of marriage to attacking the idea of marriage.

The play starts with Algernon playing the piano. He enters the scene, and asks lane what he thought of his playing. In response to Lane’s compliment, Algernon replies with ‘I don’t play accurately’. This shows us a decadent view. This could be suggested because Algernon was playing how he wanted to, and did not care for anyone else opinion on the matter. Alternatively, it could be argued that he’s playing for art’s sake. This was a saying that circulated during the Period, that meant that some art has no meaning or contextual importance, it is there just because the artist, playwright or author can create it. This could be suggested that Algernon meant this when he said ‘I don’t play accurately’ as he was playing just because he could. He goes onto say ‘that anyone can play accurately’ which enhances the view as it suggests he’s playing the piano inaccurately because it makes him an individual, and stand out from the crowd.

Marriage is one of the key issues and topics that are argued in the opening of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’. A different view is expressed by most characters, and issues of the time are brought regarding marriage. To being with the first view of marriage is expressed by Algernon. ‘Is marriage as demoralising as that?’ What Algernon could be suggesting by saying this is that Algernon, believing he is a man about town, that marriage is a drag or a tie, and that Lane is being caged in by marriage. A different view is then presented by Lane, who was married. ‘I believe it IS very pleasant state, sir.’ This is a contrast to Algernon’s view as Lane believes that marriage is not demoralising, as Algernon put it, but more of a meaningful relationship...

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The importance of beingearnest commences with a conversation between Algernon Moncrieff, one of the main characters and his butler. While awaiting the arrival of Lady Bracknell, the two discuss marriage and what it really is. What is interesting about this conversation is the fact that Algernon, a man who has never been married can speak of the woes that is in marriage. He seems to have the idea of marriagebeing seen as a demoralizing act as aforementioned. He suggests an attitude of...

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In Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of BeingEarnest, the characters create false identities and situations to avoid unwanted interactions with others. This action is referred to as “bunburying.” Bunburying is carried throughout the play and is key to how the characters express different relationships and the solution at the end of the play.
The audience is first introduced to bunburying in the first scene between Algernon and Jack. At this point in the play the audience does not know anything about Jack’s relationships with other women, except that he is in love with Gwendolen. Algernon is determined to solve a mystery of who Cecily is and why Jack owns a personalized cigarette case from her. Jack claims, at first, that he has no idea what he is talking about but when Algernon calls Jacks bluff he brings up a common action for the play, bunburying. This first scene reveals the relationship between Algernon and Jack for the rest of the play. Their relationship is all about tug and pull and they contradict each other while creating a comedic relief for the play.
When Lady Bracknell arrives in Algernon’s home she is appears very prim and proper. She pushes Algernon to select, or at least start to search for a life partner. Algernon, typical of him, refuses to do so and uses bunburying to change the subject....

...Comedy for Serious People," The Importance of BeingEarnest jokingly criticized Victorian manners and morals and attacking the society of the rich and luxurious. Oscar Wilde incorporated his own beliefs and ideology into the play by alluding to Victorian society "lets duplicity led to happiness." It is this "happiness" Wilde's play focuses on by concentrating the theme of the play on marriage.
Alluding to marriage, The Importance of BeingEarnest begins with the witty and selfish Algernon. It is Algernon who is the amoral bachelor and has not one problem with that because he believes that "divorces are made in heaven" and is utterly against marriage as viewing marriage a waste of time (118). The reasoning for Algernon's views is a stand in for Wilde's own beliefs. The quote on marriage, which there is several from Algernon, is quite entertaining to the reader that is because the reader can see that Algernon's conclusion of marriage is preposterous for that time period. However, in real life, during the twenty-first century, which is well after the Victorian age, the fact that "divorces are made in heaven" is actually quite true by today's standards. Even though Algernon clearly expresses his own views on marriage, Earnest (in the city), who is actually Jack, continues to...

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The Importance of BeingEarnest a play written by Oscar Wilde is set in England in the late Victorian era. Wilde uses obvious situational and dramatic irony within the play to satirize his time period. According to Roger Sale in “Being Ernest” the title has a double meaning to it and is certainly another example of satire used by Wilde. With a comedic approach, Wilde ridicules the absurdities of the character’s courtship rituals, their false faces, and their secrets (478).
In the Victorian era, courtship rituals were slightly different from modern time courtships. It started with couples speaking first, going out together, and finally they would keep each other company after mutual attraction was confirmed. The character Jack, in all his seriousness, refutes these rituals. Gwendolyn says “I adore you. But you haven’t proposed to me yet. Nothing has been said at all about marriage. The subject has not even been touched on” (622). This shows that Jack is ignoring the stages of courting and jumping right into marriage. Wilde is certainly satirically commenting on courting and how there really just has to be a mutual attraction. Upon Gwendolyn’s acceptance of his proposal, the problems with different social affairs begin to be unraveled. Gwendolyn says “I am told; and my ideal has always been to love some one of the...

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In the play Wilde portrait’s beingearnest as superficially as possible. It does not mean sincere and fair as the word implies, it simply means having the name Earnest. The characters in the play are inspired and controlled by a hollow and fake set of social standards that have little substance, but are used to sustain social distinctions and social class privileges.
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Social class and public reputation are two of the most common things that influence a person in their decision making. In “The Importance of BeingEarnest”, Oscar Wilde mocks a society for their reasons of choosing who to marry. Oscar Wilde expresses an ironic and satiric perspective on a society that builds a marriage upon a foundation of money, power, and deceit.
The play “The Importance of BeingEarnest,” is one of the most perfect examples of satire in our culture. Although it is set in England, it makes fun of the upper class. The play uses dramatic irony to show how Oscar Wilde sees the upper class as too formal and snobbish. It is dramatic irony because the characters in the play obviously think that they are high class with their multiple houses and butlers even though the author thinks that the upper class is too snobbish.
The play also uses hyperbole to make its point. Every character in it is exaggerated. The characters Jack and Algernon are both willing to change their names to Earnest just because the women they love say that they will only love a man named Earnest. This is an example of how much emphasis Wilde believes that society places on love and how important it is to us.
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